Cult With No Name - Mediaburn - Out Now
Here lies the prolific synth-pop duo's ninth album in twelve years and easily their most musically accessible. Lyrically however, the pair have never shied away from political commentary or social remark and on much of Mediaburn, Erik Stein and Jon Boux bury the hatchet into fake news, celebrity piddlepuff and politics.
Beyond the classy electro-pop veneer, the pair's subtle but savage wit bites deep into the likes of Blind Dogs For The Guides, Fake Nudes and All This Spite (Comes At A Price), providing us with shimmering spiky melodies that recall Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, OMD or John Foxx, all dressed up in sarky barbs and laden with mild observational vitriol.
Perhaps the album's centrepiece is the glorious string-laden ballad By Air Or By Sea, consummately accompanied by Tuxedomoon's Blaine L. Reininger on violin. Or it could be the chilling atmospherics of (no such thing as) Silence, a track that further explores the cinematic sound of their successful David Lynchian collab for Blue Velvet Revisited. Or even the eddying epic waltz-step of Mona which if released twenty years ago might have graced a few Cafe del Mar playlists, alongside the closing Button On My Desk which does have the air of Smokebelch about it.
In fact there are so many highlights here, you'd be hard-pressed to pick a dud. Further guest spots from Sneaker Pimps' Kelli Ali and Tux pianist Steven Brown ensure that no one track sounds similar. Slick without glossing over today's key subjects, neat without being sickly sweet, the beautifully-arranged Mediaburn is the work of a band that is deserving of a much larger audience.
Beyond the classy electro-pop veneer, the pair's subtle but savage wit bites deep into the likes of Blind Dogs For The Guides, Fake Nudes and All This Spite (Comes At A Price), providing us with shimmering spiky melodies that recall Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, OMD or John Foxx, all dressed up in sarky barbs and laden with mild observational vitriol.
Perhaps the album's centrepiece is the glorious string-laden ballad By Air Or By Sea, consummately accompanied by Tuxedomoon's Blaine L. Reininger on violin. Or it could be the chilling atmospherics of (no such thing as) Silence, a track that further explores the cinematic sound of their successful David Lynchian collab for Blue Velvet Revisited. Or even the eddying epic waltz-step of Mona which if released twenty years ago might have graced a few Cafe del Mar playlists, alongside the closing Button On My Desk which does have the air of Smokebelch about it.
In fact there are so many highlights here, you'd be hard-pressed to pick a dud. Further guest spots from Sneaker Pimps' Kelli Ali and Tux pianist Steven Brown ensure that no one track sounds similar. Slick without glossing over today's key subjects, neat without being sickly sweet, the beautifully-arranged Mediaburn is the work of a band that is deserving of a much larger audience.